Routines
by ILearneditatShakespeareCamp
Summary: Eventually, a person can get used to absolutely anything. Oneshot. ::Tyzula::


Azula hates routines. And, therefore, when it was suggested to her that she make them, she told her brother she refused to go back to the therapist and if he tried to make her go again, she would do horrid things to him. It was a lie and he knew it, but he also had learned that forcing Azula to do things never goes well.

There is only one routine she maintains. The one she does when Ty Lee is coming to visit her. It is not an intentional routine, not one forced upon her by her father or teacher or brother or therapist. It simply... happened.

The night before, she forces herself to go to sleep at an hour normal to humans. Usually she sleeps when she is tired (which is always) and wakes when she wants to get out of bed (which is never) and despite rising with the sun for her entire life, sometimes sleeps from dawn until dusk. The sun soothes her, sometimes to sleep.

She needs to force herself to sleep because if she stays awake, she will drift into thoughts she does not want to have. Whether good or bad, they are unwelcome. The only thing about her affair with Ty Lee that Azula is sure of is that it must remain thoughtless and impulsive or Azula will break it by thinking too much or questioning it too frequently.

In the morning, she stares in the mirror for a very long time. She has in fact gained beauty despite the years, maturing into someone incredibly gorgeous. And Azula is very aware of that fact, and often uses it to her advantage. Because no matter how articulate and intelligent you are, nothing quite makes people as easy to use as being easy on the eyes.

And she decorates herself. Familiar sweeps of burning eyeliner. Just as one eventually becomes familiar with a routine, one never can quite forget how to do their eyeliner. Azula has always done it the same way and she does not intend to do it another way.

Then she waits. The waiting is the most painful part because even the things she usually occupies herself with become utterly useless. Zuko asks her if she is okay usually twenty or twenty-one times to which she snaps at him, makes some snide remark or simply ignores him. They get along more and more every day. Zuko and Azula have gotten used to each other in their life of joint solitude, and they have even become friends.

But Azula would rather swallow razor blades than admit she enjoys spending time with her brother. And Zuko would rather burn off the rest of his face than share any of his feelings with Azula.

And when she arrives, the greeting is routine. Completely. The socially appropriate kiss on the lips. A brush of the fingertips that always lands in the same place.

Azula now lies on a sofa, her eyes occasionally flickering over to Ty Lee. She is locked in conversation with Zuko as Azula falls silent. Silence, Azula has gotten used to saying very little. She used to speak constantly and never withhold her opinions. But no one wants to hear them anymore, and she has realized that silence can be powerful.

"...and then she had kittens," Ty Lee finishes and Zuko smiles faintly.

"That's cute," Zuko says, seeming genuinely enamored.

"Azula," Ty Lee says and the princess raises an eyebrow. Ty Lee has gotten used to not getting much of a response. Not that she ever did from the princess, who has always seemed to think she is too good to genuinely associate with those she sees as beneath her (and she sees _everyone _as beneath her). "do you want to go out to dinner?"

"If you'd like to," Azula says coolly and Ty Lee blinks and nods with a tiny curl of her lips.

They go to the same restaurant that they always do. It is perpetually too cold, but they have grown used to it eventually. It is better than everywhere else in town and it has rooms in the back that are more private. Ty Lee may live as a peasant most of the time, but Azula certainly does not.

Ty Lee has gotten used to poverty, mud and blue. She used to be familiar with only money, dry, sweltering heat and red and gold. But now she is perfectly content with her new life, and only returns to the Fire Nation to see Azula and Mai, seeing as her family wants nothing to do with her.

And after dinner they creep to the palace. Their lips meet and they meander to bed. Lie there together, their bodies tangled and knotted at the soul and at the legs. Azula is content in this routine, and in tracing the lines of the only body she wants to fuck.

But in the morning, the routine is broken. Broken routines are even worse than fulfilled routines, in Azula's mind. Her father forcing pattern onto her made her used to things going as planned, and when they do not, she feels itchy and worries.

Routines make it easier. The therapists... were right about that.

Usually Ty Lee wakes Azula gently and convinces her to come to breakfast. But Ty Lee is not in bed. Azula's heart leaps into her throat as she wonders if she did something wrong. She can be so violent, so cruel, the more she clings to Ty Lee, the more she hurts her like the barbed teeth of a swamp leech.

Azula gets up and looks for Ty Lee. She checks every hiding place in the palace. And finally, she wriggles through a window and onto the slanted ruby roof. Ty Lee is upside down, staring at the bright sunrise.

"Boo," Azula murmurs and Ty Lee drops one leg before quickly kicking it back up and regaining her stance. "So much for, 'I'll be there when you wake up.'"

Ty Lee sighs. "I know, I know. But I felt all antsy and twitchy. You're always telling me to fidget less."

Azula shrugs. "So what brings you up to this roof?"

"Thinking."

"Well that's unlike you," Azula remarks mockingly. Ty Lee has gotten used to not thinking and Azula has gotten used to thinking too much.

"I'm staying this time," Ty Lee says and Azula's golden eyes flash.

"You are?" Azula does not know what to say to that. She does not know what she is supposed to say to that.

"I am. I want to be with you."

Azula closes her mouth to keep from saying something that will change Ty Lee's mind. She kisses the acrobat upside down, lips brushing against each other in a strange, inexplicable and unusual sensation.

Princess Azula could get used to Ty Lee staying.


End file.
